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but need the tools to make the vision a reality
Alberta’s teachers welcome and support the vision for public education outlined in the Inspiring Education report released June 2 by Alberta Education, but wonder how that vision will be achieved.
“Teachers are looking forward to working with government to help make Inspiring Education a reality, but we will need the tools to do the job,” said Alberta Teachers’ Association President Carol Henderson. “We are looking forward to discussing with Minister Hancock how the Association can enhance its role in professional development, teacher preparation and governance to help achieve the vision he is setting out today.”
The question now is how to move ahead. “The first thing the government should do is to stop doing things that are clearly contrary to the direction set out by Inspiring Education. We cannot move toward achieving this vision if school boards are cutting teaching and support staff because of government funding decisions. We cannot achieve more meaningful evaluation of student learning if we still have Grade 3 students filling in bubbles on standardized exams and deny high school students opportunities to demonstrate through written responses their learning in the sciences and math.”
The strong support expressed in the report for a high-quality education system that provides students with rich learning experience aligns with teachers’ own views and with what the Association has been hearing from students, parents, community leaders, academics and business people. “We are just wrapping up Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta, a series of public seminars in Calgary and Edmonton focused on public education’s role in preparing the province to face the challenges posed by demographic change, globalism, economic transition and environmental constraints—these are the same themes explored in the Inspiring Education dialogue,” said Henderson. “We all want to help build an education system that can better engage students as thinkers, ethical citizens and creative entrepreneurs.”
On the issue of governance, the Association adamantly supports maintaining elected school boards. “Democratic community governance is central to public education—while much needs to be done to improve public engagement with school boards, elected trustees are the voice of their community and their role cannot be performed by government appointees,” the president said.
